1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-way valve and to a refrigerating machine having a refrigerant circuit in which such a multi-way valve is inserted. Such multi-way valves or refrigerating machines are used, for example, in refrigerators that have a plurality of cooling compartments capable of being regulated respectively by a specific evaporator to temperatures that can be set independently of one another. They serve, there, for apportioning a refrigerant stream coming from an individual compressor to one or more evaporators. Such multi-way valves are configured conventionally mostly as solenoid valves, in which the closing member of a ferromagnetic material is changed over, as a result of the action of the magnetic field of an electromagnet, between two different rest positions, in which it in each case blocks one of the two possible paths of the refrigerant through the valve. To achieve a good leaktightness of the solenoid valve in its various switching positions, the closing member must, at rest, be pressed against its seat with not too low a force; during the changeover of the valve, the force has to be overcome to bring the closing member into a new position. The higher the closing force is, the larger, the more powerful, and, correspondingly, the more costly is the electromagnet required for this purpose.